


Christmas Cookies

by TanyaReed



Category: Castle
Genre: F/M, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-16
Updated: 2012-09-16
Packaged: 2017-11-14 09:10:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/513628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanyaReed/pseuds/TanyaReed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All of my Castle stories were written during the first three seasons (though Christmas Cookies is actually a future fic).  This one was also written for the Last Author Standing challenge.  Kate makes cookies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Cookies

Kate moved awkwardly around the kitchen, her stomach brushing against the sideboard as she reached above her head for the ingredients she would need.

Around her, the apartment was bright with Christmas cheer. Green and red were splashed everywhere. Holly, mistletoe, and ribbon decorated walls and flat surfaces. In the living area of the great room, there was a huge, twinkling tree with an obscene amount of presents beneath it.

She glanced up to reach for the sugar and smiled when she saw the sprig of mistletoe dangling just over her head.

Rick loved Christmas.

She was starting to love it again too. Christmas spent with the Castles reminded her of the ones she had enjoyed as a child, when her mother was alive and the holidays meant family and joy.

Kate rubbed a hand over her round belly as she felt her baby move restlessly. She had really missed those family Christmases.

She began to hum a Christmas song as she took out the milk and eggs. Her body protested as she knelt to reach in a bottom cupboard for a pan. Most of the pans in there were shiny and new. Expensive, like everything else Rick owned. Kate bypassed these. Most of the time, when she actually did the cooking or baking, she was more than happy to use the state of the art tools her husband insisted on. This was different.

Way in the back, behind the shiny new pots and pans, there was a sheet. It was dark and dented from all the cookies it had seen. Beside it was a small Ziploc bag filled with festive plastic shapes. Kate felt her breath catch as her hands closed over a piece of her childhood. She was hit by a memory so strong that she could smell the cookies baking and hear her own childish laughter.

_“Now, Mom? Can I cut them out now?” Kate Beckett, seven years old, with long dark hair and newly minted braces, danced excitedly._

_“Not quite yet,” her mother said with a smile. “We've just started.”_

_Cutting out the cookies and decorating them was Kate's favorite part. She loved it even more than eating them. It was so much fun to give Santa a blue beard and to make the tree ornaments all different colors._

_“We need some milk. Can you get that out of the fridge for me, Katie?”_

_“Sure!” She hurried over to the fridge and grabbed the box. It was full, and she almost dropped it._

_When she got back to the sideboard, her mom handed her a little plastic cup. “Can you fill this without spilling it?”_

_“I'll try.” Kate's mom always let her help make the cookies. She got to stir them and add stuff and everything._

_When Kate got the milk in the cup and then the mixing bowl without spilling it, her mom said, “Good job.”_

_Kate grinned, feeling proud of herself. With her mother's help, she confidently added the rest of the ingredients._

_Afterwards, her mother said, “Now, remember, we have to put the dough in the fridge for a little while.”_

_Kate had been so excited to cut them out and decorate them with sprinkles that she had forgotten that part. They only made their special cookies once a year—at Christmastime. Her face fell._

_“Don't be sad, Katie.” Her mom picked her up and held Kate close. She smelled like cookies and herbal tea and cinnamon._

_Kate laughed as her mother twirled her around and started singing a Christmas song. The melody surrounded Kate and filled her until she had to join in._

The Kate of thirty years later hugged the bag of shapes to her chest as she used the counter to haul herself to her feet. Suddenly, she missed her mother terribly. She hadn't been able to make sugar cookies at Christmas since Johanna's murder. It had always been their special ritual, and the thought of baking the cookies alone broke her heart.

Kate's eyes filled with tears, and she set her teeth stubbornly against the pain.

A sound behind her made her turn, and she blinked back the unshed tears as she saw Rick come bouncing down the stairs with their two year old daughter in his arms. The baby was laughing and singing a familiar Christmas tune. She got most of the words wrong, but it was the same one Kate had been humming and the one Kate's own mother used to sing to her.

One of Kate's tears escaped to fall down her cheek. She brushed it away and a smile came to her face, spreading warmth through her right down to her heart. This was the reason Kate was finally making Christmas cookies again.

She thought her mother would have wanted it that way.


End file.
